Trump bans Feds from contracting H-1B workers and makes telehealth the new normal US president Donald Trump spent much of his Monday on matters impacting the technology industry. The most exceptional announcement was that he expects any sale of TikTok to a US company must be accompanied by a finder’s fee of sorts paid to the US Treasury. “The United States should get a very large percentage of that price …
The most exceptional announcement was that he expects any sale of TikTok to a US company must be accompanied by a finder’s fee of sorts paid to the US Treasury
So TikTok, by itself, is a "no-no" due "security matters".
However, TikTok, if (and when) owned by an American is absolutely fine.
Gee whiz, slap me silly and call my Sally!
By the way, does this rule apply to Huawei?
The whole Tiktok hollabaloo is a nothingburger, a distraction so the media stop talking about the mismanaged pandemic that may well cost Trump re-election.
Tiktok is not used for the core communications infrastructure, and it's not necessary for government communications. A simple order of "don't install it on government (or government contractor) equipment" negates any security risks even more so than "sell it to a US company".
This post has been deleted by its author
TikTok ships personal information to the Chinese Communist government. When owned by Microsoft, that won't happen. TikTok should be shunned by all thinking Americans until it is owned and operated by an American. Even then, it should be closely watch. All social media should be closely watched. Only thing is America can't do anything about a social media platform that is owned by an enemy of America. HOWEVER, America does have the power to block all communication of goods, services, or information at the border and examine it before allowing it to pass. Furthermore, it has the power tax all such communications.
Trump's "finders fee" is just a shakedown. I don't think there is a statutory basis for even charging two companies for the regulatory cost of examining their merger, much less for a finder's fee where the U.S. government gets a cut of the purchase price. Now, if Tik Tok USA stock was held by investors in the U.S. then the government would get an indirect revenue bump because of taxes on the capital gains that at least some of the investors would realize.
But otherwise, this is just Trump trying to position this as a "Bee-utiful deal, the best dea!" to burnish his image as the President who used his private-sector deal-making skills benefit the U.S. public, when another pol would not have been able to do that. However, if the U.S. government told the Trump Organization that it needed to pay a finders fee on some acquisition Trump was making, then Trump would tell the feds to take a flying leap, and reach for the lawyers.
You decide (Newsnight, 10 mins).
@BebopWeBop
Better for some perhaps - but not for a screen reader assisted peruser of Register Pages.
From the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standard:
H30 - Providing link text that describes the purpose of a link for anchor elements
"The objective of this technique is to describe the purpose of a link by providing descriptive text as the content of the a element. The description lets a user distinguish this link from other links in the Web page and helps the user determine whether to follow the link. The URI of the destination is generally not sufficiently descriptive."
Example 1
Describing the purpose of a link in HTML in the text content of the a element.
(anchor open tag href= tag)"routes.html"(end anchor open tag)
Current routes at Boulders Climbing Gym
(anchor close tag)
With respect, my post related to 'but it would be much much (much) better if you just posted them in cleartext.' as a principle rather than this example. While this link may not be a perfect or even good example, the principle embedded in WCAG H30 is _not_ to post links as text, but to post descriptive text to display in an anchor. Specific WCAG version requirements exist in Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (WCAG 2.0), though not, as far as I am aware, in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
“ Trump has also long-argued that H-1B visas drive down salaries”
There should be more mandated onshore work, don’t mind if the outsourcers onshore staff and pay proper onshore wages, will ensure there is less obvious differential between in house and outsource then and give the rest of us a chance to compete.
The easy way to fix the H1-B visa is to not hand them out as a lottery, but on the basis of the expected salary of the worker. Either set a limit (like the UK does), that the worker has to be above to be eligible for the visa or a highest salary gets the visa first system (depending on how/if you want to limit the number of visas).
By setting a limit that cuts out the whole bringing in cheap foreign labour to replace the locals, you remove that problem, whilst still allowing for the high end, skilled professionals to be brought in as needed.
It seems such an obvious solution. Obviously too obvious for the US...
The lottery aspect comes out of how quickly you can submit your application. Every year there's a cap on the number of applications; you apply from (normally) 1st April, and once the cap is hit, no more are accepted. Then, those applications are reviewed, and a portion of them are successful.
There is a separate lottery for green cards which is an actual lottery, ie, you can submit an application for the right to apply for a green card, not an H1-B, from most countries in the world, without having any of the normal qualifications (job offer, family ties, etc), and maybe you'll get lucky. You still have to prove you're not disbarred for things like drug convictions, membership of the Communist Party (yes, that bar still exists).
Apparently, then, somebody in the Administration understands that like any country, the US needs imported hi-tech skills because they don't actually have enough home-growns. If H-1B holders are underpaid, that's really a separate matter from whether they're needed, and should be resolved separately.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
